December 13, 2005: Headlines: Figures: Staff: Journalism: Election2008 - Moyers: OpEdNews: The Bill Moyers Group, a 100-person grassroots volunteer association, has a remarkably clear and thoughtful objective. They are petitioning Bill Moyers to run for the Office of President of the United States!

The Bill Moyers Group, a 100-person grassroots volunteer association, has a remarkably clear and thoughtful objective. They are petitioning Bill Moyers to run for the Office of President of the United States!

From shore to frustrated shore, articulate Americans know exactly what they want. They just don’t know how to get it. In the midst of all the official obstruction of the people’s will, the Bill Moyers Group, a 100-person grassroots volunteer association, has a remarkably clear and thoughtful objective. They are petitioning Bill Moyers to run for the Office of President of the United States! Journalist Bill Moyers was the Deputy Director of the Peace Corps under founding Director Sargent Shriver.

PCOL Editorial: Bill Moyers is a journalist - a truth teller. He has never held elective office in his life and there is a reason for that. The skills that make a journalist successful and those that make a politician successful are diametrically opposed. So, while we honor Moyers for his journalism, he would not make a good candidate or a good President.

Recent articles published on the Internet reveal a very personal side to the political mood of people in this country. These thoughts show that real human passions lie behind the cold public opinion polls numbers that chart what is so obvious to anyone who cares about America’s political future: 1) the majority of the American people are totally fed up with the direction the country is headed; and 2) a large number of people don’t think the Democratic Party is doing enough to get it turned back in the right direction.

Here’s Jerry Lanson, associate professor of journalism at Emerson College in Boston, in his article, “In the House of the Setting Sun”:

“Abandoned by a Democratic Party grasping desperately for leadership, and coming up short.”

Here’s Janet Pelz, a public affairs consultant and mom from Seattle, Washington in her article, “When Patience is Not a Virtue”:

“I, for one, am ready for this country to rise up in impatience and call for leadership that, instead of preaching patience, preaches peace.”

From shore to frustrated shore, articulate Americans know exactly what they want. They just don’t know how to get it. In the midst of all the official obstruction of the people’s will, the Bill Moyers Group, a 100-person grassroots volunteer association, has a remarkably clear and thoughtful objective. They are petitioning Bill Moyers to run for the Office of President of the United States!

Who is Bill Moyers?

Bill Moyers began his career as a cub reporter for the Marshall News Messenger at the age of l6. He went on to serve as a founding organizer of the Peace Corps, a special assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson, the publisher of Newsday, a reporter and anchor for public television, senior correspondent for the distinguished documentary series CBS Reports, and senior news analyst for the CBS Evening News. With his wife and creative partner Judith Davidson Moyers, he went on to produce dozens of pioneering television programs, including Now with Bill Moyers. His several best-selling books include: Listening to America, The Power of Myth, and, most recently, Moyers on America: A Journalist and His Times. Today, he is president of The Schumann Center for Media and Democracy.

Why Bill Moyers?

Bill Moyers is a people’s champion. He has the superior qualifications needed to hold our nation’s highest office. His faith in Americans is faith in We the People, tempered by a mature understanding of politics and politicians, a faith in the reasonableness and the necessity of democracy.

Moyers is one of the best at leading the people’s fight. That is why he is the target of abusive vitriol by those who now lead by bullying and treat the public treasury like a special interest piggy bank. He doesn’t have to earn the right to be at the point of attack. He’s already there!

Bill’s Moyers is a high integrity, high achiever who advocates for those government reforms that polls show most Americans want but can’t get traditional candidates to fight for. Moyers’ inspirational calls for these reforms are setting the agenda for the national debate among all aspiring “presidential timber.” On C-SPAN as the keynote speaker at the National Security Archives 20th Anniversary celebration just last week, his call for openness in government was direct and inspiring.

Mr. Moyers is a strong potential candidate with broad electoral appeal. The typical response of most people who know Bill Moyers to the petition drive is “That would be so wonderful! Beyond my wildest dreams. I would vote for Bill Moyers in a nanosecond.” Our effort is already starting to show that Mr. Moyers support is not only strong among Democrats, but that he attracts support from Independents, Greens, and even some daring Libertarians and Republicans.

Finally, here’s a quote from Bill Moyers that explains simply why we believe Mr. Moyers is the right person to lead the country where it wants to go,

“America is a broken promise and we are called to do what we can to fix it – to get America back on track. St. Augustine shows us how: ‘One loving soul sets another on fire.’ But to move beyond sentimentality, what begins in love must lead on to justice. We are called to the fight of our lives.”

If you want to learn more about our effort to get the job of democracy done right by putting Bill Moyers in the White House, please visit www.billmoyersforpresident.org.

###

Scott Beckman is development director at the Northern Pueblos Housing Authority in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Founder of The Bill Moyers Group.

When this story was posted in December 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in dangerWhen the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. Latest: Read the ongoing dialog on the subject.

PC establishes awards for top VolunteersGaddi H. Vasquez has established the Kennedy Service Awards to honor the hard work and service of two current Peace Corps Volunteers, two returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and two Peace Corps staff members. The award to currently serving volunteers will be based on a demonstration of impact, sustainability, creativity, and catalytic effect. Submit your nominations by December 9.

Peace Corps at highest Census in 30 yearsCongratulations to the Peace Corps for the highest number of volunteers in 30 years with 7,810 volunteers serving in 71 posts across the globe. Of course, the President's proposal to double the Peace Corps to 15,000 volunteers made in his State of the Union Address in 2002 is now a long forgotten dream. With deficits in federal spending stretching far off into the future, any substantive increase in the number of volunteers will have to wait for new approaches to funding and for a new administration. Choose your candidate and start working for him or her now.

'Celebration of Service' a major successThe Peace Corps Fund's 'Celebration of Service' on September 29 in New York City was a major success raising approximately $100,000 for third goal activities. In the photo are Maureen Orth (Colombia); John Coyne (Ethiopia) Co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund; Caroline Kennedy; Barbara Anne Ferris (Morocco) Co-founder; Former Senator Harris Wofford, member of the Advisory Board. Read the story here.

PC apologizes for the "Kasama incident"The District Commissioner for the Kasama District in Zambia issued a statement banning Peace Corps activities for ‘grave’ social misconduct and unruly behavior for an incident that occurred on September 24 involving 13 PCVs. Peace Corps said that some of the information put out about the incident was "inflammatory and false." On October 12, Country Director Davy Morris met with community leaders and apologized for the incident. All PCVs involved have been reprimanded, three are returning home, and a ban in the district has since been lifted.

The Peace Corps LibraryPeace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today.

Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community.

Read the stories and leave your comments.

Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: OpEdNews

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; Staff; Journalism; Election2008 - Moyers

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